DE BBC Y AL JAZEERA

Last Updated: Tuesday, 21 November 2006, 03:42 GMT E-mail this to a friend Printable version

Obrador 'inauguration' in Mexico

About 100,000 people attended the ceremomy in Mexico City. Enlarge Image The defeated left-wing candidate in Mexico's presidential election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has held an unofficial swearing-in ceremony. During his "inauguration" in Mexico City, Mr Lopez Obrador said he was launching a "parallel government". He claims he was the victim of fraud in July's election - a view shared by millions of Mexicans. But some of his supporters think his alternative inauguration is ill-advised and politically irresponsible. In the presidential election, Mr Lopez Obrador was defeated by less than a percentage point by Felipe Calderon of the governing National Action Party (PAN). 'Short leash' He was sworn in by Senator Rosario Ibarra, a human rights activist and member of his party, who placed a red, green and white presidential sash across his shoulders. Mr Lopez Obrador insists he won the July election. "I pledge to serve loyally and patriotically as legitimate president of Mexico," Mr Lopez Obrador said before an estimated 100,000 supporters in the Zocalo, Mexico City's main square. "I pledge to protect the rights of Mexicans and to defend Mexico's sovereignty and patrimony, and ensure the happiness and welfare of the people." Mr Lopez Obrador has promised he will do everything he can to hamper the government of Mr Calderon, who succeeds President Vicente Fox on 1 December. "Those neo-fascist reactionaries better not think they'll have room to manoeuvre," he told his supporters on Saturday. "We're going to keep them on a short leash." Although Mr Lopez Obrador has enough of a support base to be able to create a mass civil disobedience movement, some analysts think that his campaign will be, at best, a thorn in the Mr Calderon's side. The BBC's Americas editor Will Grant says many Mexicans are tired of conflict and long for a return to normality. Some of Mr Lopez Obrador's advisors privately agree that it would be the politically expedient move, especially with an eye on any future presidential bid, our correspondent says.

NEWS AMERICAS

UPDATED ON: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2006 3:59 MECCA TIME, 0:59 GMT Mexico gets 'parallel' president

Obrador has never accepted the result of July's presidential elections Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the defeated candidate in Mexico's presidential elections, was 'sworn in' as an alternative president on Monday. The left-winger wore a red-white-and-green sash like those of Mexico's presidents as he told his supporters on Monday that his "legitimate government" would work for the poor. Lopez Obrador lost July's presidential election to his conservative rival Felipe Calderon by less than one per cent but refused to accept the result. "There are millions of Mexicans who are not willing to accept more abuses," he said during the ceremony in Mexico City's Zocalo square. "He knows that he didn't win, that he is the product of an electoral fraud. That can not give him peace of mind," Lopez Obrador said of Calderon in an interview in the La Jornada newspaper on Monday. "No matter how cynical he is, he can not feel secure," "Calderon is the lowly servant of the white-collar criminals." Police barricades Federal police have already set up barricades around the chamber of deputies to prevent Lopez Obrador's supporters from setting up new protest camps ahead of Calderon's inauguration ceremony on December 1. Followers of Obrador's Democratic Revolutionary Party have threatened to disrupt the ceremony, insisting that the July election was won by fraud and that the president-elect "is undeserving of any respect or consideration." The launch of the opposition government was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 1910 Mexican revolution when Francisco Madero, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa took up arms against conservatives to found modern Mexico. The former mayor of Mexico City has encouraged supporters to donate to his alternative administration on his website. Since Calderon was announced the winner, Obrador and his supporters have carried out a number of demonstrations to protest the decision but much of his support has faded since the court refused to overturn the result. A poll in the Reforma newspaper on Monday showed that 56 per cent of those questioned opposed his decision to name himself "legitimate president" while just 19 per cent supported him.